Speaker Policy

The Festival of Faith & Writing celebrates excellent writing that takes faith seriously. For people who are passionate about the often-solitary pleasures of great literature, the Festival is a friendly community of diverse perspectives on religion and creative expression, bound together by a shared, celebratory event.

The roster for each Festival of Faith & Writing includes scores of writers and storytellers working in mediums including books, podcasts, films, stage, and more. 

We receive hundreds of speaker nominations for each Festival from those who understand our unique event: attendees, publishers, agents, campus faculty and students, teachers, and readers from around the globe. 

The Festival Planning Committee—comprised of Calvin Center for Faith & Writing (CCFW) staff and rotating CCFW Faculty Fellows—actively researches these contemporary writers whose work intersects with matters of faith. Based on this research, the committee builds a roster of featured speakers for each Festival that aims to reflect the diversity of the literary arts—across genre, age, culture, and creed—when it comes to exploring faith with creativity and insight. 

In order to give ample time and attention to the many writers doing compelling work at the intersection of faith and literature, speakers are infrequently featured more than once across Festivals. When we do repeat an invitation, we normally allow a minimum of two Festivals to pass between appearances.

We discourage interested participants from self-nominating and from contacting the Festival Planning Committee directly to recommend themselves as speakers. Instead, prospective participants should ask a publisher, agent, or supporter to nominate them to express interest in our event.

Speaker Nominations for Festival 2026: The nomination window for FFW 2026 is now closed. Thank you to those who submitted nominations. Over 500 names were submitted for the Planning Committee to research and consider!